The Impact of Devolution on Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study of Faith-Based Child Care

Authors

Javier Stanziola, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityFollow
Tania Schmitz, Florida Gulf Coast University

Abstract

Although the foundations of President Bush’s faith-based initiative could be traced back at least to Colonial times, the re-packaging of this idea has raised concerns about the role of the federal government in the affairs of faith based organizations, the professionalization of social services, rent seeking, and the crowding out of private funding. This paper aims to examine the local implications of decentralizing the provision of social services in Lee County, Florida. More specifically, we will identify how devolution has affected the organizational effectiveness of faith-based organizations in the day care sector. For this paper, organizational effectiveness was defined in terms of goal setting, efficient use of resources, and reputation. This initial exploratory study suggests that any devolutionary policy that aims to aggressively include faith-based organizations in the provision of social services will face the challenge of weak information flow mechanisms within the industry.

Keywords

Devolution, Faith Based Organizations, Organizational Effectiveness, Exploratory and Qualitative Research

Publication Date

12-1-2003

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2003.1874

Recommended APA Citation

Stanziola, J., & Schmitz, T. (2003). The Impact of Devolution on Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study of Faith-Based Child Care. The Qualitative Report, 8(4), 655-675. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2003.1874